Category of small cheap notebooks became very popular and there is no wonder why most of big brands want a piece of cake for themselves. But Asus got all of them off-guard. Because of that we’ve been waiting rather long for Eee’s true rival . We’ve already mentioned MSI’s agility which allowed them again to be first with new product on market. Their trump card wears name Wind and model that InsideHW had tested is MSI Wind U100.
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The long waited AMD platform for notebooks under the name PUMA is finally introduced and InsideHW had a chance to test notebook based on this platform. To all users that have been waiting cheap integrated graphics with good performances, time has come. Intel Centrino was so far “untouchable” in field of portable computers but AMD Puma, by all appearance, got a necessary quality to fight for highest position.
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USB hard disks lately become very popular. This especially goes for 2.5’’models. The reasons for that can be found in their usefulness and practicality. Yet, we are living in times when it is necessary to transfer huge amounts of data from place to place. At first, manufacturers on market fought with larger and larger capacity of these devices. Lately, when capacity stopped being key factor, manufacturers turned to HDD case design. On that field, Prestigio went step ahead of its competitors and launched Prestigio data Safe II Fashion Edition.
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At the end of June, in Spain, we were introduced to a new series of 48xx graphics cards from ATI. We saw then only RV770PRO (4850) but at this moment 4870 (RV770XT) is also available. Even though our sources from AMD didn’t unveil why 4870 wasn’t shown on launching, we assume that some problems with quantities of available GDDR5 memory occurred. Considering that 4850 uses GDDR3 memory, it is no surprise that many retailers had them on stock. ATI 4870 will be sold, in beginning, exclusively with GDDR5 memory (this is the first graphics card that uses this memory) but AMD leaves a possibility that some innovative partner might launch later version that uses GDDR3 memory.
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It’s rare occasion to have on test, on the same month, new generation products from two big rivals (nVIDIA and ATI). This is really good news because ATI had some serious delays with R600 and that is one of reasons why it was so indifferently received on market. ATI realized that now must roll up its sleeves to catch up nVIDIA, because at that point seemed that nVIDIA unreachably moved away.
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This time, we received a fresh motherboard based on the new Intel's X38 chipset, straight form ASUS. Its exact name is ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP @n. It is impossible not to notice that this motherboard model has absolutely every component cooled in some way. ASUS had motherboards on a couple of occasions whose MOSFETs or other parts weren't a part of the heatpipe system, which required active cooling in case of overclocking. Well, this board not only has a load of copper, but also boasts two fans, which makes it perfectly cool at any circumstances. The connector and slot placement is totally OK. We also noticed a new voltage unit whose coils look top-quality, really.
The CPU voltage filtering is 8-phase. All of the capacitors are magnet-plated, which has grown to become a usual thing nowadays. This board uses DDR3 memory. ASUS itself states clearly that DDR3-1800 memory, which is yet to appear, will be 100% compatible with this board. Out of the three PCI-E lines, two (blue ones) work in 16x mode, whereas the other (black one) works in 4x mode. We especially liked the fact that the slot layout is different from the referential Intel X38 board layout, since this way, one PCI slot remains free even when using CrossFire, which is vital for gamers in need of a good sound card (although the integrated one is a decent solution as well).
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe has two (!) WiFi outputs and the bundle contains two antennas as well. This can be useful when using a WiFi hot-spot at home while wanting to maintain an independent connection to your home network as well (supposing you hate cables as much as much as home users generally do). Two LAN adapters are also present. ASUS Express Gate is a new technology, based on Linux, used primarily to perform some short, daily tasks like going online, logging in to VoIP services and send an e-mail without having to start Windows at all. The bundle is very rich, and there are so many cables that you have to place them inside the box carefully so as not to deform it!
However, the greatest value of this board is its BIOS. As always with ASUS, it was manufactured by AMI. Although it looks the same as the previous versions, ASUS did work on some features that will certainly make enthusiasts smile! First and foremost, the new system of entering OC values. If you want a CPU voltage of 1.625 V, just enter the numbers, and it will be set. No more 10-second scrolling through endless lists. If you want everything set to AUTO, just enter “AUTO”! It is incredible how things like this improve the overall impression. This can be done with every parameter. There are eight memory dividers at disposal, which is a wonderful improvement. FSB (strap) can be set to 200, 266, 333, but even 400 MHz as well.
Only time will show whether this means that this board supports the upcoming 1600 MHz Quad-Pumped Bus processors. The CPU FSB can be set up to 800 MHz, and its voltage up to 1.7 V. Maybe some will say that this is too small a value for extreme overclocking, but we remind them that this is a board manufactured primarily for use with the new 45 nm processors, which require far smaller values to work at the same frequencies as the currently dominant 65 nm ones. The steps are most delicate – 0.0625 V. The memory voltage goes up to an incredible 2.78 V, which is really too much even for DDR2, and we are dealing with DDR3 here. The steps are 0.02 V here.
There are four primary timings and nine subtimings. The maximum Northbridge voltage is 1.91 V, again more than enough. Our test CPU, E6750, worked stably on this board at 3.5 GHz, which is its limit. However, this frequency was reached at only 1.39 V. A DFI LanParty board, for example, needed 1.43 V for this. Also, the Vdrop is an incredibly small 0.009 V, which deserves every commendation. Vdrop (or voltage drop) is the difference between voltages in idle and full load mode while operating in Windows. For example, you can have a CPU voltage of 1.5 V set in BIOS, which will, when e.g. Orthos is run, drop down to 1.45 V. That means that the subject motherboard has a Vdrop of 0.05 V.
Naturally, the lesser the drop, the better. This can go vice versa as well. If your CPU requires a voltage of 1.48 V to work stably on a board with 0.06 V Vdrop, the voltage in idle mode will constantly be 1.54 V, which is too much, as the computer spends much more time working in idle regime. This can be surpassed by certain advanced motherboard tweaking (involving a blowtorch or a copper bit), but that is beyond the scope of this article.
This motherboard definitely merits a reward in its own terms, but we simply have to omit one. Even if this board manages not to be too expensive, it is plain rabid to give 400€ for 2 gigs of DDR3 RAM. When the DDR3 amasses a little more, we will no doubt make a large motherboard test anyway, so that this board gets what it certainly deserves. However, if you want the best of the best without caring much about the price, we recommend this board wholeheartedly.
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